The Changing Earth: Explaining Extinctions, Atlantis and Everything

The 2 year-old Holocene Impact Working Group intends to show that catastrophic asteroid impacts in the ocean might happen every few thousand
years - and create monster tsunami's that radically affect the earth's geology, weather, and maybe, climate.

www.nytimes.com
At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean
floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high. ...On close inspection, the chevron deposits
contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction
— toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface. ...The
explanation is obvious to some scientists. A large asteroid or comet, the kind that could kill a quarter of the world’s population, smashed into the
Indian Ocean 4,800 years ago, producing a tsunami at least 600 feet high, about 13 times as big as the one that inundated Indonesia nearly two years
ago. The wave carried the huge deposits of sediment to land.

Scientists in the (Holocene Impact Working Group) say the evidence for such impacts during the last 10,000 years, known as the Holocene epoch, is
strong enough to overturn current estimates of how often the Earth suffers a violent impact on the order of a 10-megaton explosion. Instead of once
in 500,000 to one million years, as astronomers now calculate, catastrophic impacts could happen every few thousand years.

The researchers, who formed the working group after finding one another through an international conference, are based in the United States,
Australia, Russia, France and Ireland. They are established experts in geology, geophysics, geomorphology, tsunamis, tree rings, soil science and
archaeology, including the structural analysis of myth. Their efforts are just getting under way, but they will present some of their work at the
American Geophysical Union meeting in December in San Francisco. ...This year the group started using Google Earth, a free source of satellite images,
to search around the globe for chevrons, which they interpret as evidence of past giant tsunamis. Scores of such sites have turned up in Australia,
Africa, Europe and the United States, including the Hudson River Valley and Long Island. ...When the chevrons all point in the same direction to open
water, Dallas Abbott, an adjunct research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., uses a different satellite technology to
look for oceanic craters. With increasing frequency, she finds them, including an especially large one dating back 4,800 years.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

More evidence that we should not squander our planet's bounty, or take abundance for granted.

I think this tells us we need to stop raping the planet, and take better care of what we do have. Live in a way that accepts the potential for
catastrophic change as reality, and make plans to help one another when cataclysms happen. Which they will.

Originally posted by polanksi
Fasinating post. Helps to explain many enigmas.

Thanks - and it does, doesn't it?

I am definitely "green" - but also am totally fascinated by the idea that larger cycles - not just solar, but galactic and cosmic ones - can shape
our planet and influence everything from climate to biology.

It also show how resistant people are to paradigm shifts.

:sigh:

IMO - it's a religious thing. With deep roots. Judeo-Christianity seems to mandate the concept of stasis, and/or imperceptibly slow change, in a way
not required by other faiths.

Western science is based in Judeo-Christianity, and so, continues to insist that the earth absolutely does not and cannot change cataclysmically, and
that all change is slow, be it climactic, geophysical, or evolutionary.

This goes to show that more than a couple dollars needs to be spent on tracking objects in the solar system, and contingencies for moving or blowing
these objects up should be in the works. I'm of the belief that putting to use some of the technologies we have, and developing other near space
strategies can make the possible impact of a comet or asteroid a moot point.

But we need to pay attention to know what's coming. Pretty hard to be prepared 4,800 years ago, no excuse not to be prepared at this time.

One thing I am curious about though is that if the crater is 12,500 feet below the surface, and it is 18 MILES in diameter, how big must that thing
have been when it hit? And could it have hit on land, originally? I thought that scientists have said that any asteroid even just a few miles across
would be an extinction level event? So I suppose the ocean must have provided one hell of a cushion?

here's a thought: what if this isnt the first civilization on this planet to be this advanced? how many times have we been rendered savages again
to start all over? i mean really think about it folks. in our "modern" era, we have forgotten how to do alot of things that one hundred
years ago would have been relatively simple. how many of you really know how stuff works? how do you build a house yourself without any modern
equipment? how do you grow your own food? how do you shoe a horse?

we have become so soft and ignorant in the ways of survival that if we did have an event of the type suggested by soficrow, most likely half of our
population would die the first year from simple ignorance. the rest would sink back down into the old kill or be killed mentality, and we would be
back in the dark ages. i have no proof, but it is my personal opinion that this has happened more than once.

if you believe in extaterrestrials, then ask yourself how they were able to become so advanced? most planets capable of supporting life would have to
have the same issue in regards to celestial bodies impacting, right?

we have to build and maintain some sort of shield to protect the planet from an impact....it is the only way we will ever be able to move
beyond the "just starting to figure everything out" stage.

Originally posted by soficrow
..................
More evidence that we should not squander our planet's bounty, or take abundance for granted.

I think this tells us we need to stop raping the planet, and take better care of what we do have. Live in a way that accepts the potential for
catastrophic change as reality, and make plans to help one another when cataclysms happen. Which they will.

Nice find, but I don't understand what your first statement above has to do with the thread. How is the possibility that the Earth gets hits by
asteroids every few thousand years evidence that we should not "squander our planet's bounty"?

Although in a way I agree with you, I also understand that we as a society do need oil and other natural sources that we are extracting from the
Earth.

It would be great if we could live in total harmony with everything around us, but living in societies does not allow for "total harmony" with the
environment.

We are a social people, we tend on the overall to stay in groups. Groups makes everything easier because then chores can be splitted between the
many, and it is not the burden of just one person.

I also doubt that many people will stop using their computers, electricity, their cars, or even their bicycles, etc, etc.

Are you willing to stop using your computer and all electricity and not even burn coal, gas or wood for heating?

Are you going to stop using the vitamins and medicines that you or someone in your family might be using or needing?

Are you going to stop going to the market and start hunting the food you need?

Are you going to stop the production of pacemakers, and other medical equipment which is keeping millions of people alive?

It sounds good when some people start talking about "being completly environmentally friendly" but i doubt anyone will make any changes that would
make oil and its byproducts obsolete tomorrow or 5 years from now. You can still be in relative harmony with the environment and use electricity,
fuel your car, etc, etc.

We, as a global society, have changed quite a few things for the better. There are people who just want to make money and don't care about the
environment or other people, but that is a fact of life neither you or I can change.

The part that I agree with is that we do have to accept that we live in a world, and a solar system, that will always be changing, and those changes
will always affect us, sometimes the changes are good, but more often times they are not so good for the people that are affected by that change.

We do need to think of the future, and as i have said many times in the past, if we really want mankind to survive, we need to start making
preparations such as either living in cities underground, or going to outer space and finding the technology needed to leave the solar system sometime
in the future.

my grasp of these mega-tsunami can't quite handle the idea
that several hundred feet of ocean floor sediment can be transported
to points some 13miles inland....in something akin to a 'plop' of mud

i liked the authors answers to questions of her article (3 pages worth of replies) click the ASK SCIENCE by Sandra Blakeslee, link on the articles 1st page

i'll be watching for new developments relating to flood Myths and seeking evidence of mega-tsunami as a cause for the folklore or traditions
myths....

the recent chevrons & craters dated to 1,200years ago(800AD)off N central australia. might be fresh in the collective conscious in that area of the
world
to try & connect the event with the folklore/tradition/myth....
"IF" there was anyone close enough to see it
& make stories about a localized plop of seafloor mud
& water runoff that created a hundred meter rise in the topography
in a 50 sq mile region of existing terrain

soficrow, let me start by saying that i am not attempting to hijack your thread. however, your thread provoked tangential thoughts which
caused me to author this thread entitled Civilization on this Planet.

those of you who find this line of thought interesting, please check out my thread and tell me what you think. thanks again soficrow for causing me
to think outside the box.

I have no problem with the idea that large impacts are more frequent than commonly thought.

But I would have thought an impact creating an 18 mile wide crater on the bed of the Indian Ocean would have had some impact on global
climate.... and just possibly have left some sort of signal in the Antarctic ice cores?

Thus I can only assume the crater is rather a bit older than just 4,800 years.

Could we please refrain from blaming everything that's wrong in the world on christians? Most of the world is not christian. It's such a
prejudice statement, that I find it hard to believe someone as thoughtful as yourself would not realize how bad it sounds and how utterly incorrect it
is.

Could we please refrain from blaming everything that's wrong in the world on christians?

???

I said - "IMO - it's a religious thing. With deep roots. Judeo-Christianity seems to mandate the concept of stasis, and/or imperceptibly slow
change, in a way not required by other faiths.

Western science is based in Judeo-Christianity, and so, continues to insist that the earth absolutely does not and cannot change cataclysmically, and
that all change is slow, be it climactic, geophysical, or evolutionary.

IMO - this statement does not constitute "blaming everything that's wrong in the world on christians."

Also IMO - the 'denial-of-change dynamic' has do with the industrialization of Western religion and the appropriation of Judeo-Christianity as a
tool to control the masses - it does not properly represent Judeo-Christianity's underlying philosophies.

I find it hard to believe someone as thoughtful as yourself would not realize how bad it sounds and how utterly incorrect it is.

Thank you for pointing that out.

I apologise if I have offended anyone - and ask that they take the time to reflect on my meaning.

Hopefully, they will realize that it was not my intent at all to insult real Christians, but rather, to highlight one of the ways in which true faith
can be -and is- manipulated.

I would have thought an impact creating an 18 mile wide crater on the bed of the Indian Ocean would have had some impact on global climate....
and just possibly have left some sort of signal in the Antarctic ice cores?

Thus I can only assume the crater is rather a bit older than just 4,800 years.

Why do you assume that?

Where are your references showing there is no evidence of such impacts in the ice cores?

...I would assume that the such impacts might help explain previously unexplained climactic anomalies.

...But I suspect that we both, like the scientific community, need more information.

I would have thought an impact creating an 18 mile wide crater on the bed of the Indian Ocean would have had some impact on global climate....
and just possibly have left some sort of signal in the Antarctic ice cores?

Thus I can only assume the crater is rather a bit older than just 4,800 years.

Why do you assume that?

Where are your references showing there is no evidence of such impacts in the ice cores?

Er, aren't you suppose to show that there is evidence

Actually, to be fair, the Antarctic cores aren't really detailed enough. But there was no change in climate in Greenland at the time, nor, so far as
I'm aware, anywhere else in the world. But I'd be happy to see evidence to the contrary

I would also like to know exactly one what basis they came up with a date of 4,800ya? None of the news stories I've seen seem to explain that.

If there had been a significant climate event around that time I could understand. The 4.2kya event for example (which, interestingly, has
been attributed by some to a meteorite impact).

I said - "IMO - it's a religious thing. With deep roots. Judeo-Christianity seems to mandate the concept of stasis, and/or imperceptibly slow
change, in a way not required by other faiths.

Western science is based in Judeo-Christianity, and so, continues to insist that the earth absolutely does not and cannot change cataclysmically, and
that all change is slow, be it climactic, geophysical, or evolutionary.

IMO - this statement does not constitute "blaming everything that's wrong in the world on christians."

Also IMO - the 'denial-of-change dynamic' has do with the industrialization of Western religion and the appropriation of Judeo-Christianity as a
tool to control the masses - it does not properly represent Judeo-Christianity's underlying philosophies.

You've been told that judeo-christianity is running western science. have you actually listened to a science teacher? most don't believe
christianity or any other religion for that matter. they are highly skeptical of everything. this is what slows down the wheels of progress.
empirical process demands it, or so they say.

An article in Science Times on Tuesday about new research suggesting that a comet or an asteroid may have struck the Indian Ocean 4,800 years ago
included an incorrect estimate from researchers for the frequency of such collisions. The current estimate is one impact on the order of a
10-megaton bomb every 1,000 years, not every few thousand years. The article also misstated the name of a state park on Long Island that has a
large sand wedge called a chevron, which may indicate that a comet or meteor landed in the ocean nearby. It is Hither Hills, not Heather Hill.

Also note:

Most astronomers doubt that any large comets or asteroids have crashed into the Earth in the last 10,000 years. But the self-described “band of
misfits” that make up the two-year-old Holocene Impact Working Group say that astronomers simply have not known how or where to look for evidence
of such impacts along the world’s shorelines and in the deep ocean.

This is a developing story - and a hypothesis.

The Holocene Working Group cannot currently prove all the implications - but they are well on the way, and collecting the evidence they need to do
so.

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